BANGLADESH / ROHINGYA SALAMA VISIT

22-Aug-2018
00:03:01

Visiting Rohingya a refugee camp in Bangladesh one year since the Rohingya plight had started, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Deputy Director-General Peter Salama said “this is one of the most fragile situations I have ever seen.” WHO

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1. Pan right, refugee camp
2. Wide shot, primary health centre in camp
3. Wide shot, nurse preparing vaccine
4. Med shot, Salama talking to refugees
5. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Dr Peter Salama, WHO Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response:
”The word that comes to my mind when I just look around at this site of all of these makeshift houses is the word fragility. This is one of the most fragile situations I have ever seen, from a human perspective, from an ecological perspective, the word fragility just seems to sums it up. We have a million people that have crossed the border in record time.”
6. Med shot, nurse with syringe
7. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Dr Peter Salama, WHO Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response:
“We’re really going to need to find sustainable ways of meeting the needs for health, for water, for sanitation, for education, and for livelihoods of this very vulnerable population.”
8. Tracking shot, Salama walking through centre
9. Med shot, Salama washing hands
10. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Dr Peter Salama, WHO Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response:
“We have done things that collectively we can be very proud of. The fact that we were able to conduct an oral cholera vaccination campaign immediately after the crossing of those Rohingya refugees and almost a million people vaccinated in two separate rounds, so basically the entire population that moved. In my view it’s been incredibly important in preventing what was almost inevitable - a huge outbreak of cholera that would have resulted in an untold death and suffering for the Rohingya population. We’ve managed to control diphtheria and measles outbreaks. We’ve managed to provide basic essential health services for the population. And through the great work of the UN, WHO, and the NGO partners, we stand ready to really deal with any emergency resulting from the monsoon season and the heavy rains that have come, and may still come, over the course of the next few weeks.”
11. Various shots, Salama with medical workers
12. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Dr Peter Salama, WHO Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response:
“It is really important that the Rohingya people do not suffer now in silence because we have gone beyond the acute phase and we are almost a year into this crisis.”
13. Various shots, Salama meeting with refugees

STORYLINE

Visiting Rohingya a refugee camp in Bangladesh one year since the Rohingya plight had started, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Deputy Director-General Peter Salama said “this is one of the most fragile situations I have ever seen.”

In the last year since the massive influx of Rohingya refugees to Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, concerted efforts by the Bangladesh Government, WHO and health partners have helped save thousands of lives and prevented and rapidly curtailed deadly disease outbreaks. Despite these efforts, the population remains vulnerable as a severe funding crunch threatens the continuity of health services in their camps.

Visiting Balukhali-Kutupalong Camp in Cox's Bazar, Salama called for “sustainable ways of meeting the needs for health, for water, for sanitation, for education, and for livelihoods of this very vulnerable population.”

He said, “we have done things that collectively we can be very proud of. The fact that we were able to conduct an oral cholera vaccination campaign immediately after the crossing of those Rohingya refugees and almost a million people vaccinated in two separate rounds, so basically the entire population that moved. In my view it’s been incredibly important in preventing what was almost inevitable - a huge outbreak of cholera that would have resulted in an untold death and suffering for the Rohingya population. We’ve managed to control diphtheria and measles outbreaks. We’ve managed to provide basic essential health services for the population.”

Deputy Director-General also said “It is really important that the Rohingya people do not suffer now in silence because we have gone beyond the acute phase and we are almost a year into this crisis.”